


Lost

by NephilimEQ



Series: 30 Days of OTP Prompts [1]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Arguing, Being Lost, Fluff, M/M, Old Married Couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 03:00:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13262223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NephilimEQ/pseuds/NephilimEQ
Summary: John was getting more and more annoyed with Rodney with every single step they took into the crumbling temple on PX-827. No natives, so far, and the scientist was telling him that there was a strong reading coming from the center of the ruins…which they couldn’t seem to get to.





	Lost

****

** Lost  **

John was getting more and more annoyed with Rodney with every single step they took into the crumbling temple on PX-827. No natives, so far, and the scientist was telling him that there was a strong reading coming from the center of the ruins…which they couldn’t seem to get to.

“Uh, we need to go…twenty-five meters north…no, south. No, north,” Rodney corrected himself a second time, reorienting the device in his hands. “Yes, definitely north. Then we’ll turn left, go about eight meters, and we’ll be there.”

John rolled his eyes and adjusted the strap of his gun on his shoulder.

“That’s what you said twenty _minutes_ ago, Rodney. If this is some wild goose chase--”

“Hey, when have I ever steered you wrong?”

Sheppard snorted.

“Would you like it alphabetically, by date, or by catastrophic category?”

Rodney glared at him and retorted, “Oh, ha ha, very funny. Look we’re almost there. Would it kill you to put just a little bit of faith in me?”

“Probably,” the older man muttered under his breath, but he followed the doctor through the oppressing shadows of the broken, hollowed out temple, ignoring the odd glow of the walls. Rodney had told him that it was simply phosphorescent bacteria that was reacting to his flashlight, but that didn’t make it any easier. It was still spooky.

They went the twenty-five meters north, turned left…and John dropped his gun and let out a sound of aggravation.

“Rodney!” He gestured at the wall in front of them. “What does that look like to you?”

“But, that’s not possible, the readings say--”

“Rodney,” he interrupted him. “What. Does. That. Look like. To you?”

The scientist swallowed.

“A wall.”

“Exactly. Now, what does a wall usually mean? It means,” he said, answering his own question, “There’s nowhere to go but back! To turn around and admit defeat! So, can we please, _please_ , just go back to the gate? There’s nothing here! And, even if there was, we can’t get to it, which means it’s probably closed off for a very good reason!”

“But the readings--”

John wrenched the device from the younger man’s hands and rolled his eyes and said, “Screw the readings! That is a solid wall, not some mystical power source! Now. Can we _please_ go back?”

Rodney’s shoulders fell.

“Fine.”

“Thank you.”

They both turned and headed back, first turning right, and then they followed the corridor until they turned left.

“Now, which way?” John asked, not bothering with his gun, leaving it hanging by his side, his hand nowhere near the trigger. They hadn’t hit anything so far, so John wasn’t worried about hitting anything on the way back.

Rodney stopped.

“Uh…right.” John gave him a look. “I think.” John stopped.

“Rodney…”

The threat in his tone was impossible to miss, as well as the motion of his fingers inching towards his trigger, and the younger man panicked, his eyes going wide and his voice rising in pitch.

“Well, I’m not a tracker! I figured you were doing that army guy thing where you make a map in your head and, you know, back track or whatever from wherever you ended up. What do you expect me to say? That I kept a detailed map of every single step we took since we walked in?”

“First of all, it’s the Air Force, _not_ the army, and second of all, a map would be nice, yeah!”

“Well, I’m sorry! I didn’t!”

John groaned and ground out, “You’re telling me we’re lost?”

“No. Not lost, just…currently unaware of our longitudinal and latitudinal direction…”

“In other words: lost. We’re lost. Great, just great,” John added, looking around the two of them for any thing that might look the least it familiar and give them a hint as to where they had been. Nothing. Teyla and Ronon were outside the temple, keeping watch, so they were no help in their situation, as the radios had ceased to work the instant they’d stepped foot into the ruins. It had been a bit of a risk being out of communication, but Rodney had sounded so certain and sure, that John had dismissed it as being an inconsequential risk.

Not his smartest move.

“So, any idea on how to get out of here?” he asked, looking over at the scientist.

“You’re asking me?” Rodney exclaimed. “I’m the one who got us lost in the first place…!”

“Aha! You admit it! We’re lost!”

Rodney rolled his eyes, but nodded and conceded with, “Okay, fine, yes, we’re lost. I said it. There. Happy?”

“Not really.”

Rodney groaned and continued with, “Give me a minute. I have been paying _some_ attention.” He snatched the device back from John and muttered, “I might be able to retrace out an approximate path from the readings. Logically speaking, the further away we are from the power source readings, the more likely we’re going to end up closer to where we started. We were headed north, so I suggest we head south.”

“Makes sense,” John admitted, casting apprehensive looks at the strange, luminescing walls.

Even though he could tell that Rodney was less than confident, he trusted him, anyway. It wasn’t as if _he’d_ been paying any better attention, so he would let him lead. If anyone could get them out of the mess that they were in, it would be Rodney. Not that he’d ever tell Rodney that, of course.

“Okay…this way.”

John followed behind him, keeping a careful eye on the dark, empty hallways that they passed along their winding route back through the temple. It bothered him that the glowing only seemed to be along certain walls, leaving black holes that ate up any other remaining light…hold up.

“Rodney, wasn’t there glowing stuff all along our route?”

He looked up from his device and gave him a look and replied, “You know, you just might have actually had a good idea for once, Sheppard. Yes, the phosphorescence was only along the walls that _we_ walked down! All we have to do is follow it all the way to the entrance! Excellent,” he added, tucking the reader into his bag. “Let’s get back.”

Feeling slightly insulted, John tucked his gun under his arm and moved so that the two of them were walking side by side. As they headed back, he looked over at Rodney, the side of his face lit by the glowing blue-green plants. Rodney didn’t even look over at him, but John didn’t take it personally. Despite all of the ways that the man annoyed him and pushed all of his buttons, he really did have nothing but respect for him and his work…even if he _was_ the one who’d gotten them lost in the first place.

Thirty minutes later, after talking about the weather and plans for having a guys’ night out (as well as a few wrong turns), they were stepping out into bright sunlight. Teyla and Ronon both lifted their guns at the sudden movement, pointing them directly at the two of them.

“It’s just us,” John said, pulling his sunglasses from the front pocket of his BDUs and putting them on. “We sorta got a little turned around in there, but we made it out okay.”

“And the power source?” Teyla inquired, lowering her weapon.

“No dice,” he replied, and Rodney glared at him and snapped, “Hey, wait a minute, we don’t know that for sure! Just because we couldn’t find a way to the _exact_ location of the anomaly doesn’t mean that it isn’t still there! For all we know, it’s some sort of superpowered ZPM, just waiting for someone to come along and--”

“McKay,” the soldier ground out between clenched back teeth. “We talked about this. The fact that it’s blocked off probably means that it’s something that not even the Ancients wanted to deal with, so can we please just let it go and get over it?”

He opened his mouth to retort, but Ronon cut him off with, “Whatever it was, you didn’t find it. Can we go, now? I’m getting bored.”

John nodded, and took point, glaring at Rodney over his shoulder as they headed back to the gate. It was a good forty-minute walk, so after a while, Rodney caught up to him and started going off about what they could have missed back at the ruins, while John tried to tune him out. Mostly. However, he couldn’t help a small grin at hearing the scientist rant away. Yeah, he got him lost, but it wasn’t really his fault. Rodney wasn’t entirely wrong: he technically _should_ have been keeping track of their path, but he had given him his trust and hadn’t given it a second thought.

The instant they walked through the gate, Rodney said, “Uh, I’m, uh…sorry for getting us lost back there. It was my fault. I should have been keeping a closer eye on where we were headed.”

John shrugged.

“Yeah, well, it was my fault, too. I should have kept track. I guess I just, you know…figured you knew what you were doing.”

“Really?”

They had a moment, and then John rolled his eyes and quickly added, “Which you obviously _didn’t_ , considering how quickly you got us lost.”

“Excuse me? Who was the one with the--”

“You two argue too much,” interrupted Ronon, his shoulder jostling Rodney as he brushed past him. Teyla nodded, too, and gave John a smirk and a knowing look as she followed the tracker down the ramp ahead of both of them, leaving them standing there, confused.

“What’s _that_ supposed to mean?”

At that, Weir walked into the room, and John couldn’t help but ask her, “Doctor Weir…do you think Rodney and I, uh…argue too much?”

She gave him a look.

“Like an old married couple.”

With that enigmatic phrase, she walked past them, following after Ronon and Teyla. John looked over at Rodney. They might have been back on Atlantis, but he was pretty sure that both of them were feeling more lost than ever.

Oh, well.

 

 


End file.
